Sunday, December 4, 2011

100 Shot-100 Killed



My pal David McRobie over at Xenorama recently devoted the month of November to discussing spy movies. One video I found during his cavalcade was the above, and since it didn't make the cut on the Xeno-Blog, I thought I'd spotlight it here.

As it happens, I've seen the first "100 Shot-100 Killed" (literally 100発100中) film. I absolutely loved it for its good-natured sense of humor and fairly exciting action. Akira Takarada shines as "Andrew Hoshino" (but is he really Andrew Hoshino??) and Mie Hama is at her absolute zenith. I mean, check out the amazing chemistry between those two as evidenced in the trailer alone. Plus, if Mie Hama in a bikini firing a machine gun doesn't have some effect on you, check your pulse. Throw in the likes of Ichiro Arishima and Akihiko Hirata and you have a spy movie that successfully bridges the language barrier due to pure thrills and sheer likeability.

The above video also includes some pictures after the trailer, before segueing into the trailer for the second film (albeit with the theme song replacing the audio). Its title 100発100中 黄金の眼 translates as (no kidding) "100 Shot-100 Killed: Golden Eye", and it looks like the equal of the first film in terms of awesome. The new leading lady is Bibari Maeda, who is best known (if at all) for being in SON OF GODZILLA. Incidentally, both "100 Shot-100 Killed" films are directed by Jun Fukuda, and they give you a new perspective on him if you've only seen his Godzilla work.

If you are inclined, check out this video on Youtube. It even has the option of HD there!

4 comments:

  1. Toho's international English trailer (dubbed by Frontier Enterprises) for the second film is also on YouTube.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UWgptSQ5LE

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  2. Wow, thank you for that! I know what I'll be featuring on this blog in a couple of days.

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  3. You're very welcome! It showed up on YouTube a while back and got some exposure on some Godzilla forums. I started wondering if more non-kaiju films were dubbed by Toho and came up with a few more examples, including a trailer for WEED OF CRIME (D. Jun Fukuda, 1961. It seems to be part of Toho's "underworld series").

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrtWDhC3wTo

    And according to IMDb, a trailer for the Toshiro Mifune vehicle THE LAST GUNFIGHT (1960; another underworld movie) showed up on another Something Weird compilation, though I haven't been as successful in tracking that one down.

    IMDb *also* claims that WEED OF CRIME was shown on US TV by "Commonwealth United Television", along with Fukuda's THE MERCILESS TRAP (which was recently re-discovered by Sinister Cinema). Whether LAST GUNFIGHT and BOOTED BABE were shown here or not, I don't know.

    Cody

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  4. Very interesting! I was aware of THE WEED OF CRIME, but not that there was an English language trailer for it. Still, I shouldn't be surprised by any of this considering a movie renamed I BOMBED PEARL HARBOR got a theatrical release in the United States.

    I had never heard of "Commonwealth United Television" prior to this, but it appears to be associated with NTA. Fascinating stuff!

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